The present invention relates to eyewear, and more particularly relates to a temple for eyewear which includes an integrally formed hinge adjacent to the front end thereof such that the temple front end may pivot with respect to an eyewear front without requiring a separate hinge assembly.
Hingeless temples for eyewear have previously been proposed. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,746,087 issued to Dolezal on May 22, 1956, a plastic temple 3 is attached to a front having eyewires 1 by a cold worked hinge area 4 (FIGS. 1-5), 5 (FIGS. 8 and 9), and 18 (FIGS. 10 and 12) which may be made as an extension of the temple itself. In this patent, the plastic temple is subjected to cold working by pressing or rolling the plastic, for example, to change its molecular orientation at the hinge area to thereby provide this area some degree of flexibility. It is likely, however, that this temple would be extremely fragile and break upon the repeated opening and closing of the temple. One of the major challenges to designing a hingeless temple is thus being able to withstand the high stress and strain imparted by repeated opening and closing of the temple with respect to the eyewear front.